Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and attended the University of Louisville in Kentucky where he received his B.A. in fine art and his M.A. in painting. He has taught in Washington D.C. public schools and in many prominent art schools and Universities in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Since the early sixties, Sam Gilliam has been recognized as an original and innovative color field painter. He has advanced the inventions associated with the Washington Color School and Abstract Expressionism to a new level. Gilliam has redefined the techniques of these traditions and he continues to reinvent his ideas about making art.

Gilliam received his first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1967 and has since been acknowledged by a long list of public and private commissions, grants, awards, exhibitions and honorary doctorates. Gilliam lives in Washington D.C. and operates a large studio in the beautiful historic district known as Shaw. Gilliam is internationally known, exhibited, and enormously respected; he is Washington's preeminent artist.